The World Congress is a place where, just like in real world, all leaders of the civilizations and city-states are represented by their delegates. They get together regularly to discuss and enact common actions, known as Resolutions, which then become binding for all civilizations in-game and affect gameplay in numerous ways.

The World Congress is automatically founded when any civilization meets all others and finishes researching Printing Press. That civilization then becomes the Congress's first host. If no one meets these conditions, then the Congress remains unavailable until any civilization reaches the Industrial Era. After the founding, the host of the World Congress may change every time the Congress Era changes. At that turn, the Congress holds an election to designate a new Congress host - this is an extra session, which is inserted in between normal sessions, and doesn't cancel the previously made proposals (which will be voted on the next regular session). In the case of a tie on an extra session, the current host casts the deciding vote.

Being the host provides several advantageous benefits in the World Congress, such as additional delegates and the ability to propose resolutions in every session.

The change of the "World Congress Era" occurs each time at least half the civilizations still in play reach that era, or when one civilization reaches the era beyond it. For example, the Congress Era will become Modern if half the civilizations reach the Modern Era, or if one reaches the Atomic Era.

Each civilization receives a number of delegates as representatives, forming their Delegation in the Congress. The host receives additional delegates. The core of each delegation is formed by "membership" delegates, which starts at 1 and increases by 1 in later eras. Any bonus delegates (e.g. for being the Host, or for following the World Religion) are added to the core.

In addition, from the Industrial Era forward, every civilization gets additional delegates from city-state allies, which always vote with their patron (thus practically increasing the total number of Delegates for this civilization). Note that these delegates are less stable, since the civilization loses their votes as soon as it loses the alliance with the particular city-state. Note also that in the majority of cases city-state delegates simply swap delegations (according to whoever their new patron is), but they might also simply disappear from the Congress for a while, until they find a new patron.

Finally, note that the number of Delegates from allied city-states is calculated before the turn of the voting in the Congress. That means that even if you manage to perform an action that instantly gains a new ally in this turn, you will not gain additional votes for your Delegation for this voting! Your last chance to gain delegates is on the turn preceding the voting (even if you perform an action that will fulfill a quest and gain a new ally, this will be recorded during the City-States turn before the actual voting turn, and your Delegation will increase accordingly).

Delegates by Era

Status

Renaissance

Industrial

Modern

United Nations

Host

1 extra vote

1 extra vote

2 extra votes

2 extra votes

Member

1

2

3

4

City-State

0

1

1

2

In addition, a civ can also earn delegates from the following:

The Forbidden Palace World Wonder grants 2 additional delegates for the civ that owns the city with this wonder

The Globalization technology grants 1 additional delegate from each spy assigned in another civ's Capital as a Diplomat

If the World Congress enacts a World Religion, 2 additional delegates are given for following the assigned Religion

If the World Congress enacts a World Ideology, 2 additional delegates are given for following the assigned Ideology

If no civ receives enough support to win a World Leader election, the two civs who received the most support get 2 permanent additional delegates for use in future sessions

The Diplomat is a new unit, dedicated to dealing with other civilizations in all aspects regarding the World Congress activities. Diplomats are drawn from a civ's Spy pool and use much of their mechanics, such as the ability to move between cities in 1 turn.

Any spy can be converted to a Diplomat when stationed to another civ's Capital. Afterwards, every time a spy is sent there, a prompt will ask whether they are to function as a spy, or as a diplomat. A spy can change constantly between the two functions - the difference is that in the former case they'll keep a low profile and attempt to steal Technologies, while in the latter case they'll introduce themselves officially to state officials and keep diplomatic contacts with them above the table, so to speak.

The function of a diplomat is entirely related to the work of the World Congress - Diplomats cannot be made before the Congress convenes. When a Diplomat is in a nation's Capital, they will learn their standing on the currently proposed resolutions. To check this from the World Congress screen, click on the nation in question.

Additionally, a Diplomat allows interactions with another nation regarding the World Congress. That means attempts may be made to "trade" delegate votes from the Diplomatic trading screen using the 'World Congress' option, which will now be active. Note that a Diplomat's presence won't affect the outcome of trade/bribe attempts - it may still be necessary to sweeten the deal well enough to make the other side agree to support the point of view in the next vote.

Finally, a Diplomat automatically starts promoting a nation's cultural interests, but only after the nation they are serving in adopts an Ideology. This activity provides a bonus to Tourism output to that nation, as long as the Diplomat is there.

Along with these activities, the Diplomat continues surveying the city and its surroundings (giving a vision of the city and its city screen, just like a spy), and monitoring the nation's covert machinations.

Diplomats become even more important in the late game, after Globalization is researched. From that point on, each active Diplomat confers an additional delegate to their nation in the United Nations.

The World Congress' main function in the game is to alter the game rules by enacting Resolutions. These are essentially temporary mods which affect all civs in a certain way - for example they may speed up generation of certain Great People (while decreasing generation of others), increase the usefulness of certain game items, such as Wonders, or even ban trading (establishing Trade Routes) with the City-States, a particular nation or certain luxuries.

At each Congress meeting, the Congress host and one of the Congress members may make Propositions. They may propose to either enact a new resolution or repeal an existing one. Deliberations then take place for a set amount of turns until the next meeting, when a vote takes place, which passes or fails the proposals. At the turn after the vote, new proposals are made, and the cycle continues.

Since there are always two nations with the power to propose (the current host and one other member), at each meeting there are a total of two proposals. The exception is when the turn comes for selecting the next Congress Host (at the turn of a Congress Era), or when the automatic World Leader proposal begins - at these voting session they are the sole proposal, with no additional propositions allowed. If a civilization is eliminated before the vote after making a proposal, the proposal will still be on the agenda.

Once enacted, resolutions cannot be ignored, meaning they must be obeyed until repealed.

The variety of resolutions possible is great, from placing trade sanctions against a certain civilization, funding a boost in generation of certain Great Person types at the expense of others, to initiating a World's Fair. Some late-game resolutions may not be proposed until at least one civilization discovers qualifying technologies.

Each nation can distribute their delegates amongst the proposed Resolutions for this session, choosing a Yea or Nay vote for each one. It is also possible to choose to Abstain, by not committing any delegate to vote on a resolution. Each delegate may vote only once.

Delegates can be assigned among the two proposals in any way desired - if all of a civ's delegates are committed to one of the proposals, they will automatically abstain from the other one. The proposal will pass and be enacted if there is enough support (more than 50%) from delegates. In the case of a tie, the proposal is not enacted.

Note that every vote matters for diplomatic relations with the nation that made the proposal. If it was supported, relations will improve; if votes were cast against it, they will worsen. Abstaining from proposals of little interest does not apparently affect relations with the proposing nation.

The World Congress is held every 30 turns once it is founded and during the Renaissance Era. As the World Congress Era advances, meetings become more frequent - every 25 turns in the Industrial Era, 20 in the Modern Era, and 10 in the Atomic and Information Eras. In the two last eras, however, normal votes are alternated with World Leader votes, so the actual resolution voting takes place every 20 turns.

After the first Congress Era change, delegate count changes, and city-states also receive representation at the Congress. They send delegates in the delegation of their patron, which means the more city-state allies a civ has, the more delegates it will control. For a detailed table of number of delegates per Congress Era, see above.

With technological and era advances, more resolutions become available, such as providing culture from Landmarks and Great Person tile improvements, preventing construction of new nuclear weapons, and designating a World Ideology. Finally, the Congress may also be able to initiate international mega-projects, such as the World's Fair, International Games and International Space Station. See below for more information about them.

In Brave New World, the United Nations isn't a separate World Wonder anymore. Instead, the World Congress becomes (or is simply renamed) the United Nations once any Civilization reaches the Information Era or at least half of the world's Civilizations reach the Atomic Era. From then on, the Congress will have an election every 20 turns to designate the World Leader. If this election succeeds, the winner achieves a Diplomatic Victory. If it fails (no nation achieves the necessary support), then the two nations with the most support each get two permanent additional delegates, and the game continues.

International Projects are a special kind of Resolutions, and thus may only be proposed during the World Congress. Once the respective Resolution is enacted, an International Project begins, and all Civilizations can contribute Production towards it by choosing it in the Production list from their cities. Note that unlike National projects (Manhattan Project, for example), it is possible to select the International Project in every city, making it possible to contribute simultaneously with as many cities as desired. The Project's progress can be followed, as well as a civ's current contribution, from the game tooltip that will pop up when the project is pointed out in a city; also several global alerts update the Project's situation and level of accomplishment. The International Project is completed when the target Production is reached. This works like a kind of a race, because all nations can work simultaneously on the project, and in order to receive a reward, a civ has to reach a certain amount of Production on the project before it is completed.

Each International Project grants large prizes upon completion, depending on how much the civilization was involved in it, which in turn is based upon the Production contributed towards the project. Note that higher level rewards include the lower level rewards as well.